2 years of Pandemic Adventures (2020 - 2021)

TLDR

The Covid-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill since 2020. With in-person races and travel cancelled, I embarked on some virtual races and self-supported adventures. 

1. Toa Payoh Backyard Ultra (July 2020) - 60km

2. Ultra Trail Mont Payoh (Aug 2020) - 54km 

3. Bunny vs Bear Series (December 2020) - 5k, 10k & 21k

4. Hong Kong Singapore Twincity Ultra (Dec 2020) - 15 loops of Macritchie (160km)

5. 4 Heavenly Kings Ultra Challenge (Jan 2021) - 44km

6. Wild Run 21km (Feb 2021) - 20km

7. Gila 100km (June 2021) - 107km

8. Lamp Post 1 (June 2021) - 43km

9. North South Highway (June 2021) - 30km

10. Wild Boar Challenge 25k (Sep 2021) - 25km

11. Forest Force 25k (Oct 2021) - 25km 

12. Community Chest Vertical Challenge (Nov - Dec 2021) - crazy amount of elevation and team 2nd 

13. Standard Chartered Marathon 5km (Dec 2021) - 5km

Travelling for leisure has become somewhat of a taken for granted expectation in the past. When the pandemic hit us in early 2020, many runners/adventurers got lost and didn’t know what to do. Races cancelled, no overseas expeditions, most of the time couldn't even mingle in groups bigger than 2. Looking back, I proudly proclaim I did not waste these 2 years, and even made significant progress in my fitness, weight management and commitment to the sports. The pandemic allowed me to re-focus on the basic but important things in life, which are family, work/studies and run. Travelling is made possible now with Vaccinated Travel Lanes, in-person events are coming back. The omicron variant creates uncertainty, but we will overcome. Whatever lies ahead, we must get ourselves prepared but be ready to adapt and make the best of the situation. That’s what sport and adventure teach us.

If you'd like to read more details and look at pictures and videos, scroll on..... 

Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill since 2020. Now at the end of 2021, it is still not over with anxieties over the unknown omicron variant. That's 2 years of pandemic life and still counting! Many races and in-person events were cancelled during this period, including my 2020 "A" race, the OCC at UTMB. 

Social distancing and virtual races

The pandemic brought much chaos to the world but also presented opportunities. Online meetings and virtual races became the norm. Where events used to be a scheduling and logistical nightmare to organise, they became much simpler with Zoom platforms, greater outreach too! One example was the online sharing of the Gobi March with students from Hwa Chong Institution and Temasek Poly. Due to the online platform I was able to do an online sharing of Gobi March together with Dorothy and Lok Lam from Hong Kong, which made the sharing richer and more diverse.

The pandemic also brought about the era of the virtual races. Large gatherings were banned and people were discouraged from leaving home except for essential services. Physical activities that could be done individually or as a pair were still encouraged for physical and mental health. That suited me like a pair of gloves as I could still go out for a run, and it's the perfect excuse to be out of home without wearing a mask. 

With no physical races in sight, I decided to create my own virtual challenges. Here are the highlighted ones with a review each. 

TPY Backyard Ultra (July 2020)

hydration choices

This virtual race was inspired by Big's Backyard Ultra where runners ran 4.167 mile (6.7km) loops every hour and they get eliminated if they fail to complete the loop in the hour. The winner is the last man or woman left standing. My Toa Payoh Backyard Ultra consisted of a 5.3km loop around my estate, with my home as the start point of each loop as well as for refueling. I set myself 45mins to complete each loop, the goal was to complete 10. The first 5 or 6 loops were ok as each loop was only 5.3km. Then it got mentally hard to keep getting out of the door after a very short 5-7mins rest at home. The physical fatigue set in after 8 loops or so, it was an ultra distance after all. 

Ultra Trail Mont Payoh (Aug 2020)

Had to cross overhead bridge to end point, just like UTMB

Finally done! 

The Ultra Trail Mont Payoh (UTMP) was created to replace the cancelled UTMB, and the abbreviated name was purposely made to look similar as well. Since I couldn't run the 50km OCC in Mont Blanc, I decided to run a 50km in Singapore. I wanted it to be 50% trail and 50% road and designed a course that was 2 rounds Macritchie Trail, refuel at home, then a loop around Marina Bay, ending with a 40-storey climb up a block of flats near Toa Payoh Central. Total time taken was 7hrs 2min, just short of my sub-7hr target. It was 54km though, 4km extra. :P 

Bunny vs Bear Series (December 2020)

Had enough of ultra races for the year, decided to work on speed and shorter distances. What started as a personal challenge became a rivalry with my wife! We started the Bunny vs Bear Series. Here are my timings and the winners: 

5k: 26:37, Bunny wins!

10k: 54:32, Bunny wins, again!

HM: 2:04:36, Bear wins, finally! 

Final score: Bunny wins series 2:1! 

Esther was faster for shorter distances. :P 

Hong Kong Singapore Twincity Ultra (Dec 2020)

1 loop

2 loops

The legend Deric Lau

The HK SIN Twincity Ultra came as an unplanned challenge just as I was preparing to slack for the rest of the year. Co-organised by Singapore's X Trailblazers and Hong Kong's The Greenrace, participants had to run around a pre-determined route (Macritchie trail for Singapore) as many times as possible during the race period. The race was won by Singapore's amazing Deric Lau (1418.2km) and Faith Tan (923.6km), each clocking an insane number of loops! I opened accounts on 13th December and finished 15 loops (150-160km) by 31st December. 3 loops were done on the final day of the race, was also a fitting end to the crazy year. 

Watch one of the loops here HKSIN Twincity Ultra. 

4 Heavenly Kings Ultra Challenge (Jan 2021)

January was my birthday month and I wanted to give myself a birthday present, so I designed a 44km trail route for my 44th birthday. I called it 4 Heavenly Kings Ultra Challenge (4HKUC), because it covered the 4 trails of Macritchie, Rail Corridor, Chestnut and Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Also it was around the same time as the Hong Kong 4 Trails Ultra Challenge (HK4TUC), the similarity in name was not a coincidence. :P 

Watch the video here 4HKUC. 

Wild Run 21km (Feb 2021)

toeing an actual start line with other runners

The excellent race crew

Finally there was a real physical race, not virtual! Run Wild was a race put together by Fatburd Events, Race Directed by our local trail running goddess Jeri Chua. Felt so good to be toeing a start line together with other runners that the inconvenience of travelling to the ulu western side of Singapore (more west than NTU!) didn't faze me. Singapore was also going through a period of very hot weather so I knew the race was going to be tough. I even trained in the mid-day afternoon sun to heat acclimatize. The course consisted of 4x 5.25km loops in and out of Sarimbun Scout Camp. The race was supposed to be 21km but it felt shorter, my watch GPS said it was 19.6km. I also didn't think I could do a HM PB (2:01:15) in the heat and rolling hills! Anyway distance didn't matter, I was happy with my effort and that's all that matters! The ice cold water tent along the course was a life-saver in the scorching heat! Was also nice to see other runner friends like Niro, Gary, Amy, Deric etc even though we couldn't stay to chat for long (social distancing!) 

Gila 100km (June 2021)

Training runs in the trail

Final stretch down Macritchie

At summit of Bukit Timah Hill

The biggest project of 2021! Gila 100km is a virtual race by Running Guild and Race Director Ben Swee. It was my first attempt at completing over 100km on foot at one go. What made it more meaningful was to use this opportunity to raise awareness of the condition of Chenny the former Ubin dog and raise funds for her medical expenses. This "race" felt more like a 24hr hike through many parts of Singapore, including some unfamiliar places Toh Tuck, Kent Ride etc. I decided to do this project together with Spartan superwoman Lay Hoon, who was also attempting her first 100km. She had an ACL injury about a year before the race, kudos to her for training hard and completing the race well! Although running 100km is painful, I enjoyed the few overnight training cum recce runs in unfamiliar parts of Singapore with my wife Esther and a few running friends. Lay Hoon and I also made a series of short video clips to document our journey: Gila 100km playlist. 

Lamp Post 1 (June 2021)

Twinning the Nike Pegasus 37

Our picture won me a pair of Hoka Clifton8! 

Running a full marathon (+2km) 2 weeks after a 100km race isn't a smart thing to do, but that's what I did! Dubbed the Lamp Post 1 Project, the idea was to start from my home in Toa Payoh and run to the famous "Lamp Post 1" in the Southern Tuas. Most people cycle there to take selfie with the famous lamp post that's heavily dressed in stickers, so Esther and I thought it was an interesting challenge to run there instead. The run started well at a conservative pace, but after 30km or so my calves started cramping intermittently (probably have not recovered well from the 24hr, 100km exertion) and had to run-walk. We got it done in the end. I submitted the photo from this project to a competition from Hoka One One and surprisingly won a pair of Clifton 8! Bonus prize! Btw I didn't tell them I ran in a pair of Nike :P 

North South Highway (June 2021)

Finally used my Singapore Rediscovers vouchers and booked a staycation at Amara Sanctuary, Sentosa. Meant to be a chill and relax time to recover from the 100km, but not sure what happened and we decided to do an overnight run! Since we were staying in Sentosa (southern-most part of Singapore), it would be interesting to start running from the northern-most tip of Singapore back to our hotel. From the map I found Sembawang Jetty (at Sembawang Park) to be the northern-most tip of Singapore mainland. We started there and ran across Singapore vertically down the middle (almost passed by our home), ran along Scott's Road, refuelled at 7-11s and petrol stations, and ran across the bridge to Sentosa. Was just under 30km, not too long, and I felt my body has recovered much more. Best part of this, soaking in the bath tub after the run! (No picture was taken) 

Wild Boar Challenge 25k (Sep 2021)

After I had fully recovered from the 100km project, I started a new training block to add speed to my embarrassing slow runs. Thanks to the comprehensive training progamme from Ben Pulham of Coached Fitness, I saw my 5k and 10k timings improving significantly. Apart from training and running my own time trials, I decided to do another virtual race from Running Guild. Not an ultra, 25km was more suited to the type of training I was doing then. The goal was to finish under 3hr to be inducted into Running Guild's Hall of Fame Master level. There was no prizes nor medal for it (or I didn't opt for it), I just wanted to test myself. I finished in 3hr14min, didn't make it to Master level but enough for Apprentice, so I was an Apprentice Wild Boar, oink! A week later Esther finished in 3hr25min and also made it to Apprentice level, oink oink!! 

Forest Force 25k (Oct 2021)

The Forest Force was a race I didn't plan to do, but it was postponed from 2020 due to the pandemic and thus it was already paid for. Again I used this challenge to run under 3hrs for FF25km with similar elevation as Wild Boar 25. Didn't make it again, finishing 2mins slower in 3hr16mins. Surprisingly almost made it to top 20 overall and 12th in Masters category (FF25 ranking). Didn't have much luck with the race app we were supposed to use, couldn't hear the verbal directions and the app crashed after less than 10km. Fortunately the organisers accepted by Strava submission! 

Watch my FF25 video here!

Community Chest Vertical Challenge (Nov - Dec 2021)

Stairs climbing was a familiar daily routine

Never did so much elevation on BTH before

One of the most mentally exhausting and longest duration "ultra" I've done! What started as an innocent intention to help raise funds for the underprivileged turned out to be daily routine of chasing vertz! The Community Chest Vertical marathon event was to clock as much elevation using feet over a period of 2 months, including stairs, treadmill or outdoors. After a few weeks of clocking elevation on my own I got Esther involved as well and we joined the team event. Everyday we were either doing loops at Bukit Timah Hill, climbing 40-storey HDB stair repeats or going to the gym to walk on treadmills with max 15% incline. On some days we did double session of climbs, never have we been so dedicated and hardworking! We were rewarded with a 2nd place in the team event (also came in 3rd on the individual category but the organisers only gave prizes for 1 category). Prizes were attractive, included $200 of Shoppes voucher (means can buy from Lululemon MBS!) and F&B vouchers! Here's a video of one of our BTH sessions: Legend of the Summit Stairs Loops. 

Standard Chartered Marathon 5km (Dec 2021) 

This 5km was my first in-person road race in 2 years, I signed up immediately after I found out it’s an in-person event. Didn’t specifically train for it, I was in the midst of my 10km training cycle and just went for it as a hard-tempo training run. Pre-race admin was quite a handful, we had to register for the event and pay, AND register for the SCM virtual club to upload our results. Also had to do a self-administered Antigen Rapid Test within 24hours before the race. At the race venue there were a series of Covid-19 related and registration checks, then we were ushered into waiting pens in groups of 3 runners. I was glad I arrived 30mins after the stated time, those who went early had to wait in the pens for about an hour! Race start was staggered in waves of 3 runners, a welcome change to the mass starts of the past where you just had no space to run. There were no road closures, so we had to weave in and out of the weekend crowd at Marina Bay. Marshals did their best, but I don’t think they could differentiate us from casual runners as we weren’t given bibs. Timing was based on our own GPS watches or run apps, most of us recorded about 4.8km at the finish line. Nevertheless, it was a fun and rare racing experience. Got a new 5km PB (assume it was really 5km!) after 20 years! Oh and first race in the Nike Vaporfly Next% 2, it is really propulsive!

Watch my SCM 5km video here!

Final thoughts on Pandemic Adventures

Travelling for leisure has become somewhat of a taken for granted expectation in the past. When the pandemic hit us in early 2020, many runners/adventurers got lost and didn’t know what to do. Races cancelled, no overseas expeditions, most of the time cannot even mingle in groups bigger than 2. Looking back, I proudly proclaim I did not waste these 2 years, and even made significant progress in my fitness, weight management and commitment to the sports. The pandemic allowed me to re-focus on the basic but important things in life, which are family, work/studies and run. Travelling is made possible now with opening of Vaccinated Travel Lanes, in-person events are coming back. The omicron variant creates uncertainty, but we will overcome. Whatever lies ahead, we must get ourselves prepared but be ready to adapt and make the best of the situation. That’s what sport and adventure teach us.

NB: Wrote the last paragraph in-flight from Singapore to England on Dec 8^th 2021. Overseas travel and adventure have started to resume, thus ends the post on Pandemic Adventures.